Thurston said the group failed to provide documentation of the names of its paid canvassers and signed statements confirming that paid canvassers were provided with required information about their roles, adding that removing signatures collected by paid canvassers reduced the number to 87,382, below the 90,704 threshold for appearing on the ballot.
“Since you have failed in this first step, it is my duty to reject your proposal,” he said in a letter to the group.
Arkansas Limited Government said in a statement that it complies with the requirements and will “vigorously fight this ridiculous attempt to disqualify.”
The group also said it cooperated with the Secretary of State’s Office throughout the process, using affidavit documents provided by the office to provide the state with a list of paid canvassers and the necessary information related to their employment.
“To now allege that he failed to provide required documentation regarding paid campaign workers is absurd, clear and undeniably false,” the group said.
Arkansas Limited Government said it emailed the requested signed statement to the office “more than 10 times.”
“After careful review of all the documents submitted, our staff determined that the petition did not meet all of the requirements of the law,” Thurston’s office said in a statement.
Anti-abortion Republicans in Arkansas voiced support for Thurston’s decision, with Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying the state’s liberal abortion rights advocates “have demonstrated their immorality and incompetence.”
“Failure to comply with such a basic requirement is unacceptable,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said at the X, adding that abortion rights advocates “have no one to blame but themselves.”
“As I have said before, amending the Arkansas Constitution naturally requires a rigorous process and requires any proposer to comply with all applicable laws and regulations,” he said.
About a dozen states will vote on abortion rights in November, the first time voters have been asked to vote on the issue since the Supreme Court ruled against abortion. Roe v. Wade As of June 2022, they have largely approved measures that seek to preserve or expand access to abortion, and have rejected measures that seek to restrict abortion, even in more conservative states.
Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.
